Mechanisms of Sustained Selective Attention in 2- to 6- Year-Old Children

描述（由申请人提供）：持续的选择性注意力是我们在一段时间内排除其他部分处理环境的能力的基础。因此，无论是语言理解、分类还是解决问题，持续的选择性注意都是一个至关重要的过程，它使人们能够处理相关信息并忽略与手头任务无关的信息。然而，这种至关重要的能力背后的机制的发展目前还没有完全理解。这项研究的目的是研究2- 6岁儿童持续选择性注意的机制，在这个年龄段，这种能力已经被证明是快速发展的。研究这种能力机制的挑战之一是开发一个对不同年龄的参与者具有足够激励和挑战性的任务。另一个挑战是开发一项任务，使在同一实验范式内评估持续选择性注意的自动和自愿组成部分成为可能。该研究将(1)开发一项引人入胜的任务，适用于调查包括2岁以下儿童在内的广泛年龄组的持续选择性注意的自愿和自动成分，以及(2)利用该任务调查2至6岁儿童的持续选择性注意机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sustained selective attention underlies our ability to process some parts of the environment at the exclusion of others over a period of time. Therefore, sustained selective attention is a crucially important process enabling one to process relevant information and ignore information irrelevant to the task at hand, be it language comprehension, categorization, or problem solving. However, development of the mechanisms underlying this crucially important ability is not fully understood at present. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children, age at which this ability has been shown to develop rapidly. One of the challenges in investigating mechanisms of this ability is developing a task that is sufficiently motivating and challenging to participants of different ages. Another challenge is developing a task that makes it possible to assess automatic and voluntary components of sustained selective attention within the same experimental paradigm. The proposed research will (1) develop an engaging task suitable for investigating voluntary and automatic components of sustained selective attention across a wide range of age groups, including children as young as two years of age, and (2) utilize this task to investigate mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project will initiate a new line of research investigating mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children using a novel computer-based Object Tracking task. In addition to generating new empirical and theoretical knowledge, the proposed research will develop methodology that may have important practical implications for early identification of children at risk for developing attention deficit disorder.